Experts affirm that the country “suffers more than others and adopts fewer measures” to counteract the phenomenon. Up to 90% of the deposits in the south are at risk in the next 10 years. Dry winters and increasingly hot summers accelerate evaporation and only the highly corrosive salts remain. Pastors and farmers migrate to the cities.
Baghdad () – Ancient archaeological sites exposed to serious damage caused by climate change, such as increasingly intense sandstorms and increased salinity. All this in a nation that “suffers more than others and works less” to counteract the phenomenon. This is the alert launched by the Iraqi archaeologist Aqil al-Mansrawi, according to whom “in the next 10 years, the sand could have covered between 80% and 90% of the archaeological sites” in the south of the country. From the top of a mound of sand that covers a temple, the expert expressed his concern for Umm al-Aqarib, one of the most important Sumerian cities in southern Mesopotamia, with 4,000 years of history behind it.
Umm al-Aqrab, with a series of temples including that of the Sumerian god Sharaa, occupies a 5 square kilometer desert area in southern Iraq. It reached its maximum splendor in 2350 BC, but today it is threatened and in danger of disappearing due to the indirect effects of climate change, as well as frequent looting, as is the case with other sites that lack adequate protection. More than 10 sandstorms hit the country last year, with tangible effects such as the deposit in question, which is now mostly covered. Future archaeological missions will have to do more “to clear the ground” before starting excavations, Al-Mansrawi said.
Stretching along what was previously known as the ancient Fertile Crescent, a land bathed by the Tigris and Euphrates and rich in resources, Iraq is today an emblematic mirror of the environmental crisis plaguing the planet. From the increase in temperatures to the dryness of the reserves, passing through sandstorms -which are also a health emergency-, the problems accumulate with increasing intensity and end up affecting not only people, but also cultural heritage.
An aspect that also worries the Church, to the point that since his time as Archbishop of Kirkuk the Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans, Card. Louis Raphael Sako, has denounced the risks that cultural heritage runs. A good that the cardinal defined as “universal” and that must be safeguarded, like archeology, which alone is worth “more than oil.” A task that corresponds to all citizens and that he recalled in 2016 at the “International Conference for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage in Conflict Scenario Zones” in Dubai (UAE), which brought together heads of State and Government, academics, religious leaders Islamo-Christians, activists and experts in history, archeology and culture.
Jaafar Al-Jawthari, a professor of archeology at Al-Qadisiyah University, said the winds are “loaded with dust and carry impurities from the earth,” causing “erosion of ancient buildings.” The problem lies in the drier winters and increasingly hot summers, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees, which ends up “weakening and fragmenting the soil due to the lack of vegetation cover.” The other factor is salinity, the second enemy of the sites, which is caused by the “very dry” environment, according to Mark Al-Taweel, professor of Middle Eastern archeology at UCL University in London. “The water evaporates very quickly, the only thing left are the salts” which, accumulated in quantity, “corrode everything,” said the expert.
Iraq is one of the five countries most affected by some of the tangible effects of climate change, among which the long periods of drought stand out, according to UN reports. Although the emergency is largely related to the lack of rain, the country’s authorities condemn the construction of dikes at the sources of the two rivers by its neighbors, Turkey and Iran. This policy, according to Baghdad, is a “preponderant” factor to “limit” the flow of water. Al-Jawthari says the nation has the “worst water management” and that farmers continue to rely too heavily on immersion irrigation, which consumes huge amounts of water and causes heavy losses. Little by little, water scarcity pushes farmers and herders to migrate to the cities to survive. As a consequence, Al-Jawthari explained, “after farmers abandon their land, the soil becomes even more vulnerable to winds.” Former President of the Republic Barham Salih already sounded the alarm in 2021, when he pointed out that “39% of Iraqi lands were affected by desertification”, a percentage that is likely to increase in the near future.
